The Democrat and physician Amy Acton has won the governor's race in Ohio, according to Dagens Nyheter. Her victory makes her the first woman ever elected to lead the state.
Acton defeated Vivek Ramaswamy, the Republican entrepreneur who had the backing of President Donald Trump. The result was reported by Dagens Nyheter on Wednesday.
Why it matters
The outcome puts a Democrat in charge of a state that has leaned Republican in recent national elections, and it hands the governor's office to a candidate with a background in medicine rather than electoral politics. It also marks a historic first for Ohio, which had not previously chosen a woman as governor.
The race drew national attention less for its policy debates than for the tone of its closing weeks, which Dagens Nyheter describes as dominated by personal attacks and harsh language.
A closing stretch defined by a disputed advertisement
The sharpest controversy came from a campaign advertisement released on behalf of Ramaswamy, which drew condemnation from figures in both parties, according to Dagens Nyheter.
The ad featured an interview with Acton's mother, who called her daughter a liar. Dagens Nyheter reports that Acton cut off contact with her mother in 1978, after accusing her stepfather of sexual abuse.
The advertisement was defended by President Trump and Vice President JD Vance. However, it was criticized by a number of Republican candidates for the Senate and for governor, Dagens Nyheter reports — an unusual split within the party over a spot aired in the final phase of a statewide contest.
The episode placed a private and painful chapter of Acton's family history into the middle of a public campaign, and it became one of the defining images of the race's last days.
What to watch
With the governor's office set to change hands, attention now turns to how Acton's administration takes shape and how the state's Republican establishment responds to a result it fought hard to prevent.
